34 LETTER-FILES OF S. W. JOHNSON 



Albany to Deer Eiver, probably visits were frequent 

 and letters few. We know that he made friends, 

 enjoyed the broader opportunities of cultured society 

 which his position opened to him, and did good work 

 in the classroom. 



Professor Norton's courses of lectures on the con- 

 nection of science with agriculture, delivered at New 

 Haven and at Albany in the winter of 1851-52, 

 attracted attention, following as they did so closely 

 upon the publication of his book, ' ' Elements of Scien- 

 tific Agriculture," which, as the " Prize Essay" of 

 the New York Agricultural Society, had made his 

 name familiar to a large constituency; and the School 

 of Applied Chemistry at Yale had through his efforts 

 attained to such a position that announcement was 

 made that " Students who enter this department may 

 hereafter have in view a degree to be given when they 

 have completed a certain course of study." His 

 broad conception of professional obligation to the 

 cause of scientific education led Norton also to join 

 with earnestness in the movement for the establish- 

 ment at Albany under State patronage of a university 

 in which agriculture and its connected sciences should 

 have a prominent place. This double duty for he 

 kept up his work at New Haven, traveling twice a 

 week between the two cities, and lecturing three times, 

 in each proved too much for his strength. After a 

 vain trip south in search of health, he died in October 

 1852, at his father's house at Farmington, Connecticut. 

 The sudden ending of his life brought sadness to the 

 colleagues and pupils who loved him, and proved a 

 heavy blow to the two struggling institutions for the 

 success of which he had been energetically working. 



